Problems that I see frequently when I visit schools and
in new students-
1.Immature sound concept- solution have them match your sound, and
listen to great recordings...

2. "Testing the water"- playing the first note before playing the music
in practice. (An intelligent musicians mistake) - the student doesn't want
to miss the note or be out of tune. The problem is that this is a crutch
which destroys confiedence. - Solution- practice playing any note in the
range with out any preamble... Insist on the student not stopping.

3. Poor posture- two forms-
1. lazy, with bell down, body out of line.
2. Stiff rigid, with bell exactly level to floor.
This second is another intelligent musicians mistake. (Notice that
is one sits away from the back of the chair, that the tone becomes constrained.
(Also that almost no professonal player sits that way.)

4. Unballanced practice- playing only that which one feels safe (good
at doing). This leads to the death of improvement.- Find the weakest areas
and blitzkrieg them.

The problems I encounter are the few and I can almost
guarentee that a high school player will have them before they play a single
note (though I try to keep and open mind... :)

1 - No real idea of what a trumpet sounds like. The only examples
in their minds are the sounds created by the people in their school bands,
which are usually marginal at best. They own no recordings of trumpet
players, do not go to symphony (or other! concerts), make no attempts
to seek out professional players in the area, and wonder why they even
need to. For me and the way i was instructed, in order to create
something, you have to have more than a vague idea of what you are trying to create.
A trumpet is very difficult to play incorrectly, and the most technical
feats become easier when the horn is played/approached
correctly. The sound is a great road map to tell if things are
working right. Part of this problem is the hs band director that
says that an edge on the sound = blasting and is therefore wrong.

2 - They incorrectly think that simply by practicing exercises - with
the same diseased playing habits - they will fix everything. Practice
does not make perfect. Correct, intelligently applied practice leads
to better playing and more consistancy.

3 - They try to play without breathing in or out. Need I say more.

4 - They tongue the beginning and end of each note. Need I say
more.

5 - re #3, they play with too much pressure because the air is not allowed
to do the work.

6 - They have no idea of what they really sound like. They never
record themselves - or if they do, blame it on the cheap taperecorder :).
In order to play with intention of sound and music, you cannot be playing
teacher and listening and diagnosing at the same time. The two
activities are mentally mutually exclusive. An analogy is gained
from the study of stuttering. It has been found that when a person
can no longer hear their own voice, they no longer stutter. The subject
were too wrapped up in listening to the sound of their own voice to be
effective speakers. Ergo> I tend to play better with headphones
on when I cannot hear myself play. I always sound better in the studio
(w/headphones) than live. Maybe I should plug my ears - so my audience
won't have to plug theirs :)

7 - They erronously think that they must consciously control too many
of the muscles involved - chops, tongue, throat, mpc placement, whatever.
The trumpet is easiest played when the automatic systems in the body
learn the neural pathways to play by habit, like how we walk, talk
and sing. Analysis paralysis. This is usually from studying
from someone else who has been too wrapped up in the physical aspects of
playing and has lost sight of the real goal of making music through the creation
of beautiful sound.

I hope this is sufficient fuel for the fire.

Timothy B Hutson wrote:
>> Come on y'all! There has to
be more than just ONE common student> problem out there.>

With the exception of the "no recordings of
trumpet players" bit, your description is me! (I had everything Al
Hirt recorded and can still sing his solos.) That's exactly how I
learned to play. Perhaps that is the single largest problem
and the single greatest benefit.

Many of us that grew up in smaller towns would
not have been able to learn to play if it had not been for the general
music teacher or band director who spent one or two semesters playing trumpet
in college. But, by that mechanism, the sheer volume of instrumentalists
coming out of schools is pretty large. (benefit)

The down side is obvious. Just as you
said, not having a trumpet teacher/player to emulate or specialized instruction
in how to pursue our goals is a major problem.

OK guy. Now that you have the problem
identified, what is the solution? Perhaps it is an approach like
Clyde Hunt has taken toward production of method books; the use of CDs
and tapes that contain narative as well as quality playing of the excercises
in the book. Does anyone know if things like this exist for
the beginner and intermediate player? That is, for the players that
are just learning and/or struggling to get out of the staff and to get
a good sound and basic articulation.

Yea! Now we're gettin' some place with this
thread. Now we're really cookin' with gas. (Oops. I'm
showing my age with a comment like that. I meant to say "Groovy")
:-)

> I've always thought that when someone is just starting out on trumpet
(5th-6th grade) that, aside from correcting the blatant errors like not
breathing correctly, one of the most important things to do is let them
have fun. To me, that means not trying to fix every little thing they do
wrong. The things like stopping the notes with their tongye, or consistently
playing their low C#'s without using the trigger... I'd worry that if a student of that age had too many details to worry
about, they'd get tired of it and quit.<

This brings up an interesting point. I teach quite a bit, and
many of them are first year players (typically in the 6th grade).
They always sound the same. Stuffy sound, almost always stop
the sound with the tongue, just in general sound rotten. I'm surprised
that Band Director's don't supply recordings of the what the students instruments
are supposed to sound like. All of my students that I get
through the schools play at a very low level. In fact, take a school
band student who started playing in band, and then take another trumpet
player and start them privately (before band), and track the progress.
I have found that the ones that I start privately can play circles around
the other kids in just a few weeks! I attribute that to the fact
with the private kids, the first sound they hear associated with the trumpet
is me! Which, is much better than having listened to only the other
6th graders that don't have a clue as to what the trumpet should sound
like.

> When do you folks feel is a good age to start really hitting the
details?

I don't think that you can make that judgement based on age. I
think it depends on the ability and desire of the student. When I
was younger (actually, I like this now too!), I wanted the teacher to tell
me what I was doing wrong, and praise me for what I was doing right.
If you only comment on the negative things, the students begin to feel
like they can't do anything right, then they start to dislike the trumpet,
and then both of you are miserable. On the flip side, if you
only say what they do right, they don't have an accurate assesment of what
they play like. So, when they are younger, or playing trumpet just
for fun and don't want to practice all day, I try to make lessons fun,
but also accomplish some other concepts and correct any bad habits...

>I teach quite a bit, and many of them are first year players (typically
in the 6th grade). They always sound the same. Stuffy sound,
almost _always_ stop the sound with the tongue, just in general sound rotten.
I'm surprised that Band Director's don't supply recordings of the what
the students instruments are _supposed_ to sound like. All of my
students that I get through the schools play at a very low level. >

I have lately had a unique opportunity for a semi-controlled experiment.
I have started well more than 200 young trumpet players, usually fifth
graders, in the 25+ years I've been teaching. My findings are not much
different than
Donovan's. This last July I started my own ten year old daughter who
has grown up listening to me play all the time. The difference between
my other raw beginner students and her in sound quality is amazing (uh,
hers is
better). While I am in a position to discipline her practicing more
than the rest of my students (i.e., I *know* if she has been playing her
long tones and scales!), I am *still prepared to conclude that she plays
with a better sound because she starts with a much clearer conception of
what a trumpet is supposed to sound like (or, at least, what her dad/teacher
thinks a trumpet ought to sound like). I know she and I may be blessed
with the same sound enhancing genes, etc., but I am almost sure that it is nurture, not
nature.

Practical application for the rest of my teaching suggest themselves:
demonstrate more myself, encourage the kids to get trumpet player recordings
for birthdays, etc., pass out lists (to the parents) of local college musical
performances, particularly brass, send the kids up to listen to the oldertrumpet
players rehearse, etc.

I really knew it all along: Sound starts in the brain. I always used
to say, perhaps not believing it entirely myself, that trumpet playing
is 90% mental. Now I think that is conservative.